Loving God

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30 NIV)

Help us, dear Lord, to have hearts that are free to love you as you have requested in your Holy Word.

Reveal to us any secret sin that may cause deception, thereby keeping us from loving you as we should.

Forgive us our trespasses through your Son, Jesus, and purify our souls.

For when our souls are pure and holy, our minds can think according to your Word.

As we meditate on your Word, we find comfort, hope, peace, direction, illumination, wisdom, knowledge and strength.

In your Presence, there is fullness of joy, and the joy of the Lord is our strength.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, that you loved us so much that you gave your Son, Jesus, to the whole world as part of your plan of redemption and Eternal Life.

Thank you Jesus, for the love you gave to each of us in that you went to the cross and you took our sins upon you, though you were without sin. You sacrificed your life in order that we may have the remission of sins and the gift of your Holy Spirit. Thank you for the hope of your promise that we’ll one day have the privilege of living with you for eternity.

We love because you first loved us, and it is your love that flows through us.

God is love and he who abides in God, abides in love, and God in him.

Help us love you more and serve you better than we did the day before.

In Jesus name, Amen.

Brushed by an Angel

Angels. Have you ever entertained them unawares? What do I mean, entertain? And unawares ? I know I’d want to be aware of an angel, wouldn’t you?

Years ago, there was a popular TV program called, “Touched by an Angel”. The angels in this series intervened in the lives of people who would be featured in the weekly episode. They were entertaining angels literally. However, the Bible suggests we do the entertaining, not angels entertain us.

I read different versions of the following verse and have seleted the following: Hebrews 13:2 KJV “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unaware.” And the New International Version, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing, some have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”

I recently traveled out of state and visited a small local church while there. The hospitality shown to my family and I was wonderful. I asked the superintendent if there was any particular place we were to sit and he replied, “You may sit wherever you like, but angels may brush up against you.” I chuckled at what I thought was a joke and had a passing thought that I might sit down on an angel unawares. However, as the congregation stood to sing, I felt someone brush my left shoulder and back. I looked over beside and behind me, but no one was sitting in the pew behind us and my daughter sat far enough from me that there was space for another person to sit in between us.

Then, the light went on in my head. I turned around and leaned over close to where the superintendent was sitting two pews behind and said, “Were you just joking about an angel brushing up against us?” “No, Ma’am. We are to remember to entertain strangers because they may be angels. There might be an angel up there in front of you and you’d not know it.”

I smiled and said, “An angel just brushed his wing up against me.” He gave glory to God and I joined in the praise, too.

May God bless your week and let me know if you’ve been brushed by an angel.